Where the Air Is Cool and Dark

This 1997 drama by Seattle filmmaker Brion Rockwell features a largely unknown cast stars in the story of a 30-year-old former logger and recovering drug addict, Emmett (Emmanuel Malcolm Martinez), who returns from New York to his Olympic Peninsula hometown to make a film. To finance the project, he agrees to grow marijuana with a buddy, the first of many counter-productive moves the hero makes. Things get worse. When Emmett decides to get serious about his life, his trail of mistakes may not let him go. The film is particularly strong in its sense of place, in its moody Pacific Northwesterness that is somewhat reminiscent of another film about a returning native seemingly incapable of holding onto a life, Five Easy Pieces. (NR) TOM KEOGH